In an interview with India’s WION on the sidelines of the 8th Indian Ocean Conference, held in Oman’s Muscat on February 16, Araqchi said Iran and India enjoy very good and historic relationship.
“As two Asian civilizations, we have always been in contact with each other, we continue to do so. We attach great importance to our relationship with India. There used to be lot of trade between Iran and India. There have been ups and down, strong determination between the two sides to strengthen ties, we continue to do so. Problems are not because of Iran and India, but because of the third parties. We have always tried to be creative on how to tackle those problems, how India and Iran can enjoy good relationship,” the foreign minister said.
He noted that the determination existing between Iran and India can help overcome the problems, especially in the Indian Ocean area.
Asked about the course of cooperation with India in the development of Iran’s southeastern port city of Chabahar as Trump has come to power in the US, Araqchi said, “We have a ten-year agreement with India on Chabahar port. We know that there have been questions raised by the third party. We know Indians are in consultations with Americans on this. So we leave it to our friends to decide.”
“As far as we are concerned, Chabahar port is a very important port that connects India to Iran, to central Asia and other places. It has strategic importance for both of us. There is determination from both sides to work, to have cooperation especially through Chabahar. There is ten year cooperation, so let’s see how we tackle those problems,” he added, WION reported.
Asked about the plans to use the national currencies in the trade exchanges between Iran and India, Araqchi said, “Because of the sanctions we have started to do business and trade with other countries through local currency, barter system, and I think every opportunity (should be seized) to use that mechanism with India as well. This is up to private sectors on how to deal with this.”
